By IRNA
London : The humanitarian situation in Gaza is at its worst since the illegal Israeli military occupation over 40 years ago, according to a new report by a coalition of eight UK-based human rights and development groups.
Movement is all but impossible and supplies of food and water, sewage treatment and basic healthcare can no longer be taken for granted, said the report by Amnesty International, Save the Children, Cafod, Care International, Oxfam and Christian Aid among others.
It said the economy has collapsed, unemployment is expected to rise to 50 per cent, hospitals are suffering 12-hour power cuts and schools are failing – all creating a “humanitarian implosion.”
The worsening humanitarian catastrophe comes after Israel reportedly withdrew from Gaza over two years ago but has since been imposing a stranglehold siege on what is commonly described as the world’s largest prison.
The report, Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion, published Thursday, condemns Israel’s blockade on Gaza as illegal collective punishment which fails to deliver security. It comes within days of the latest Israeli massacre, killing over 120 Palestinians.
“Unless the blockade ends now, it will be impossible to pull Gaza back from the brink of this disaster and any hopes for peace in the region will be dashed,” said Geoffrey Dennis, of Care International UK.
“Punishing the entire Gazan population by denying them these basic human rights is utterly indefensible,” said Amnesty UK Director Kate Allen. “The current situation is man-made and must be reversed,” she said.
The coalition of rights groups warned that while Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinians had seen a “long-term pattern of deterioration” stemming from decades of occupation and from sanctions, the severity of the humanitarian situation due to the Israeli impositions.
They urge the UK and EU to condemn the blockade and call on former British prime minister Tony Blair, representing the Middle East Quartet, to break his silence and make a statement on the extent of the humanitarian crisis.
Other recommendations include engagement with the Hamas, which has been subjected to an international boycott since winning the Palestinian parliamentary elections two years ago movement, saying that otherwise Gaza cannot be a partner for peace.
Their appeal follows a report by John Dugard, the UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights in the occupied territories, in which he described Palestinian terrorism as the “inevitable consequence” of Israeli occupation and laws that resemble apartheid.